Heresies are in the Chosen

Written by Josiah Nichols

April 24, 2023

Crosses, Sunset, Silhouettes, Dusk, Dawn

Heresies are in The Chosen tv series, produced by Angel Studios. While a Mormon producer backs up the show, the real danger of this show is in how it introduces the audience to Jesus Christ. Other than potentially breaking the Second Commandment not to make a graven image, the show also presents false teaching about Jesus Christ. The show does not claim to represent an accurate depiction of Jesus Christ and does claim to have artistic liberty. However, to claim this an authentic Jesus, as Dallas Jenkins does, is blasphemy. There is no authentic Jesus outside of the biblical Jesus.

This article will go over the different episodes of The Chosen to show what is biblically and historically inaccurate. This should be more than enough reason for Christians to stay away from the TV show. Heresies are in the Chosen.

Heresies are in the Chosen Season 1

  • Pio episode: Shepherds experience angels, and the crippled shepherd is healed. There is no miraculous account of this in Scripture before Jesus’s baptism.
  • Episode 1: Jesus keeps Mary Magdalene from committing suicide and casts out her demons without telling her his name. This happened after Nicodemus failed to cast out her demon in the prostitute section of Capernaum. Scripture never puts Nicodemus outside of Jerusalem. The gospel accounts never mention Mary being a prostitute, only that Jesus cast demons out of her (Mark 16:9).
  • Episode 2: This episode is complete fiction. It has Mary hosting a Sabbath dinner, Nicodemus investigating a miracle, and Simon Peter fishing on the Sabbath. Then Simon becomes a spy for the Romans. None of these events are recorded in Scripture.
  • Episode 3: Jesus teaches a group of children how to follow the kingdom of God. Jesus also shows his skills as a carpenter. Jesus did not reveal himself in this way to children before parents took their children to Jesus (Matthew 19:14, Mark 7:27).
  • Episode 4: Other than playing on the fiction from the previous episodes, there are other problems with this episode. Simon does not go through with being a spy and has to pay his debt. Jesus pays the debt by having the disciples catch a large number of fish. This causes Matthew to believe Jesus is the Messiah. The problem with this is none of it is in the text. It also implies we do not need the Bible to know what happened. This storytelling is a direct attack against Scripture alone for our understanding of God.
  • Episode 5: This episode shows Jesus going to a wedding with his disciples. Jesus’s brothers are not there. Also, Jesus jokes that not even He can do everything. This attacks Jesus’s omnipotence. Jesus can do anything that goes with his character.
  • Episode 6: Jesus encounters an Ethiopian woman, heals a lepper, and the woman petitions Jesus to heal the paralytic. This again attacks sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.
  • Episode 7: Jesus calls Matthew. Jesus also meets with Nicodemus at night in Capernaum. While these events did happen, the Scripture never said Nicodemus came to immediate faith in Christ. John 2-3 places the context in Jerusalem, not Capernaum. Matthew’s writing also does not indicate that he is autistic.
  • Episode 8: Nicodemus says God can and must be known outside of the Scriptures. This is a direct attack on the sufficiency of Scripture. It says people who only trust the Scriptures are legalistic and Pharisaical. Jesus also goes to a Samaritan village and meets a woman at a well. This encounter depicts Jesus as someone with no authority as He says “no” to the Samaritan woman’s accusation that he came to preach to her.

Heresies are in the Chosen Season 2

  • Episode 1: Jesus and his followers are in the Samaritan village. Jesus heals a crippled Samaritan robber. James and John plow a field. Jesus teaches in a Samaritan synagogue. James and John also want to call fire down on the village. Again this directly attacks Scripture alone and the sufficiency of Scripture. Also, the Scriptures only record Jesus teaching the Samaritan village for two days. There are no miracles recorded.
  • Episode 2: Philip comes from John. Jesus accepts him as a disciple but refuses to tell Philip his mission. Jesus calls Nathaniel. Before this, Nathaniel was drunk and depressed because a building project did not go well. This depiction of Jesus does not call Nathaniel to repentance for his drunkenness.
  • Episode 3: Large crowds come to Jesus to be healed. His mother, Mary, comes to help him. Mary will not tell the disciples about the birth of Jesus. Jesus is wearied from healing people and is covered with blood. Mary helps Jesus at the end of the episode. This appeals to Mary being the co-redemptrix with Jesus. Jesus alone is the mediator and redeemer of man. This also points to Jesus’s healings being mystical. Jesus healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Making Jesus mystical is also heresy.
  • Episode 4: Jesus heals a paralytic man who has been by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. This man’s name is Jesse, and he is the brother of Simon, the zealot. Jesus confronts a pharisee named Shmuel who is fighting against “false prophecy,” some cessationist movement within the Pharisees. This episode is a lesson about inserting one’s own ideas into the text to interpret the Scriptures. It is hermeneutically unsound. Simon also abandons an assassination when seeing his brother walking again. This brings a Roman undercover agent to spy on Jesus and his followers. This is pure imagination.
  • Episode 5: John the Baptist argues with Jesus about not showing himself more. Jesus tries to dissuade John the Baptist from confronting Herod over his sin. The Baptist also rebukes Jesus for being too passive. Jesus practices his sermon on the Mount and messes it up. This Jesus casts out a demon after Mary Magdalene failed to do the same thing. This causes Mary to leave the group to go on a drinking binge. This episode minimizes the fact Jesus relied on hearing the words from His Father when preaching and teaching. John the Baptist shows less respect for Jesus than he does in John 4. It also minimizes the fact Jesus knew what was in all men. He would not have let Mary Magdalene go off to go on a drinking binge.
  • Episode 6: Jesus sends Peter and Matthew to find Mary Magdalene after the drinking binge. When Mary is brought back to the camp, she is accompanied by his mother. Jesus does not call her to repentance. This goes against Jesus’s teachings on repentance, Jesus being the shepherd of his followers, and it points again to Mary being the co-redemptrix.
  • Episode 7: Jesus is arrested by the Romans. He is threatened with His life. He also is let go Scott free. When he returns to his disciples, he teaches them about prayer. Again, this never happened. The only time Jesus was arrested and handed over to Romans was when his own people betrayed him.
  • Episode 8: Jesus needs help from Matthew for the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew does not understand the imagery in the sermon and does not like the beginning. The audience is introduced to Judas Iscariot. He helps them get to the mountain so Jesus can teach. His female followers also bully Jesus on what to wear when teaching. The audience also never hears the sermon. This attacks Jesus’s authority and speaking by the words of the Father.

Heresies are in the Chosen Season 3

  • Episode 1: Matthew reconciles with his parents. Jesus accepts Judas Iscariot after an interview process. Andrew also talks to John the Baptist with the help of Joanna. Again, this goes against the sufficiency of Scripture.
  • Episode 2: People flock to Capernaum to meet Jesus and build a tent city. Jesus sends the twelve disciples two by two to different cities to preach the gospel. At some point, Peter and his wife conceive a child before the twelve are sent out. Little James confronts Jesus as to why he has not been healed. Judas also becomes the treasurer. This attacks the sufficiency of Scripture. It also attacks the Scripture says Jesus healed all who came to Him.
  • Episode 3: Jesus comes to Nazareth to celebrate a holiday. There is a flashback of Joseph giving Jesus a 1400-year-old mule bridle from the Exodus to remember their bondage and being led to freedom in the promised land. Jesus also claims to be the Law when referring to himself as the Messiah. Then he weeps at his father’s tomb. This reverences relics, objects which are meant to prove the faith. It also makes the Law God. In reality, the Law reflects the Moral character of God, though it is not itself God. This is very dangerous teaching. It makes obeying the Law a means of salvation.
  • Episode 4: The twelve apostles return to Capernaum to discover the water system has been ruined, making people sick. This causes Peter’s wife to miscarry before Peter returns from his missionary journey. She is cold and hateful towards her husband. She also does not reveal this to her husband the miscarriage. Jairus’s daughter also becomes sick to the point of death. This, again, is an exercise in eisegesis.
  • Episode 5: The miscarriage is revealed in the first scene of the episode. Jesus heals a woman with a discharge and raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead, thus bringing them to faith. Yet, he will not raise Peter’s unborn child from the dead. This causes Peter’s wife to question Jesus and his choice of disciples. Peter responds to his wife’s anger by fixing the cistern with the Roman who arrested Jesus. More eisegesis. It also shows the inability and cruelty of this Jesus who healed all who came to Him in the Scriptures.
  • Episode 6: A person from the Decapolis says Andrew and Philipp’s teaching has caused riots in the city. Simon the Zealot has to confront his past. Jesus gives the blind sight and the lame the ability to walk. This convinces the zealots to leave Simon alone. Peter’s wife finally tells Peter about her miscarriage. Again eisegesis.
  • Episode 7: Peter is aloof, wandering the city until he meets with the Roman who arrested Jesus. He learns the soldier’s slave is also his son, and he is sick. Matthew puts on tassels from a dying man he caused to be killed. Jesus decides to go to the Decapolis to fix Andrew’s and Philipp’s mess. He has John stay behind to fetch Peter because the mission’s success “depends” on him. Peter reveals to John that he believes Jesus is the Messiah, but he should not have been chosen as a disciple. More eisegesis.
  • Episode 8: Jesus goes to the Decapolis, heals people, and feeds over five thousand men. Peter throws a fit by knocking over a basket full of bread and fish. The “false prophesy” brigade comes to question what happened. Jesus prays with Shmuel. Then Jesus walks on water and brings healing to Peter, saying his wife’s miscarriage was a test of his faith. Peter’s wife also is ceremonially washed to give her healing. This eisegesis attacks the clear reading of Scripture and is dangerously close to baptismal regeneration.

Conclusion

These are the heresies of the Chosen. It attacks the sufficiency, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture. It attacks Jesus’s divinity, authority, and goodness. It presents a Jesus who does not demand repentance, accepts sin, and punishes his disciples with starvation, disease, and death of loved ones. This is not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus taught the inerrancy, authority, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. He did not teach God could be known outside of the Bible. The Chosen should be marked and avoided by believers. Contrary to popular belief, Heresies are in the Chosen.

Furthermore, if you want more biblical resources on studying the Scriptures, check out the store at strivingforeternity.org/store. There are also a lot of other articles on the website to encourage you to dive deeper into God’s Word. Please also check out Apologetics Live at ApologeticsLive.com, where Andrew Rappaport, Dr. Anthony Silvestro, and Justin Pierce answer your questions and teach you how to defend the faith. It is on from 8pm – 10pm EST. Also, do not forget to check out the Rapp Report, where you can hear the teaching of Andrew Rappaport and the Christian Podcast Community. Lord bless you.

You May Also Like…

0 Comments